About “Dark Horse”

“Dark Horse” is the third single off Prism, Katy Perry’s fourth studio album. The song has been called a “southern rap-techno mashup” and features a verse by rapper Juicy J. “Dark Horse” is Perry’s best-selling song to date and has over two billion views on YouTube. It’s her ninth chart-topping song on the Billboard Hot 100, and has sold over 13 million units.

Perry has described the song as a warning given by a witch to a man not to fall in love with her. “It’s kind of a juxtaposition,” she told MTV,

It’s got me, a pop artist, with a little bit of an urban kind of hip-hop-flavored background soundtrack to it, and the lyrics are kind of witchy and dark, as if I was a witch warning this man not to fall in love with me, and if you do know I’m going to be your last!

The song has been the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit from the Christian rapper Flame, who charged “Dark Horse” is nearly identical to his own song “Joyful Noise.” “By any measure,” his lawsuit states,

The devoutly religious message of ‘Joyful Noise’ has been irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse.’